Romania’s bear population has increased to about 8,000, the environment minister said, citing a recent study.
Minister Barna Tánczos said there are between 7,536 and 8,093 brown bears living in forests in Romania, according to a study he presented on Wednesday.
That equates to a national average density of 11 individuals per 100 square kilometers. Romania has more brown bears than any country in the European Union.
„The study shows that we have a constant increase in the bear population in Romania. Being a scientific study, there is no room for personal opinions. (…) The ministry’s official position is that a growing population of bears generates … a constant increase in human-bear conflicts and damage caused bt bears,” he said.
He said the counties of Brasov, Harghita, Prahova, Argeş and Bacău in wooded central Romania were the worst affected. Some bears have been relocated.
The state has paid over 21 million lei for the damage caused by bears in the past four years.
He said the ministry would finance electric fences in areas where bears were causing trouble. Bears sometimes come into towns and villages looking for food.
Town halls, companies, associations, private individuals and public institutions can apply for the funds, he said.
Romania previously had an estimated a brown bear population of 6,000.
There have been tensions in recent years between hunting groups and animal rights associations about how to deal with bears which sometimes attack and have killed people.
Last July, Romania passed a law allowing for ‘dangerous bears’ to be killed either in villages and towns or in uninhabited areas.
The WWF Romania said the bill failed to follow the protocol for the prevention and resolution of conflicts with bears developed by the European Union in 2015, and leaves too much room for interpretation, given that the bear is a protected species.
Romanian Parliament bill allows killing of bears in the wild
